Countdown to a summer space odyssey as India prepares to launch seven satellites

Like the US' GPS (Global Positioning System) that gives the exact location of moving aircraft, ships, vehicles and even people carrying smart phones, India will soon have its own satellite-based navigation system.

India's equivalent of the GPS will be called the Indian Regional Navigational Satellite System or IRNSS, a cluster of seven satellites being developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) - IRNSS-1A, IRNSS-1B, IRNSS-1C, IRNSS-1D, IRNSS-1E, IRNSS-1F and IRNSS-1G.

The first satellite - IRNSS-1A which will weigh 1,425 kg - is expected to be launched on July 1, 2013.

Launched from Sriharikota on PSLV-C22 rockets, all the seven satellites are expected to be in orbit by early 2015 and will operate in allweather conditions.

Three satellites will be placed in the geostationary orbit and the rest in geosynchronous orbits. The satellites will continuously calculate and relay position information to aircraft in the Indian air space, ships sailing in the Indian Ocean, motorists all over the country and mobile handsets, among others. The satellites will provide position accuracy to within 10m to 20m.

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The system is intended to provide an absolute position accuracy of better than 10m throughout the Indian landmass and better than 20m in the Indian Ocean.

So if you are travelling on the road and want to locate an address, a receiver in your car tuned into IRNSS will tell you the exact position of the address to within 10m of the building.

Seven satellites, such as the one pictured here, will make up the IRNSS, which will be launched in July

It will give both visual and voice navigation instructions. But is there a need for IRNSS when there already exists a reliable satellite navigation system in the form of the GPS?

And will it be as reliable as the GPS? Officials say the Indian system will be more accurate in this part of the globe.

The satellite navigation system will cover the Indian subcontinent and around 1,500 km beyond the country's geographical boundaries.

Besides the satellites or the space segment, the system will also have a ground segment, comprising spacecraft control facility, range and integrity monitoring stations, navigation centre, network timing facility, ranging stations and data communication network, and an user segment - aircraft, ships, motorists et al.

The ground segment would be responsible for maintenance and operation of the satellite constellation.

"It will be our own system. It will make us independent in the area of navigation. At the moment we depend on US' GPS or Russia's GLONASS system. They can block signals anytime if they want," an ISRO official said.

"All satellites will be placed in such a way that these will keep looking at India all the time," he said. As part of the ground segment, a navigation centre has been unveiled in Bangalore rural district at the Indian Deep Space Network complex at Byalalu.

The centre will be responsible for time reference, generation of navigation messages and monitoring and control of ground facilities.

Aryabhata was the first indigenously built Indian satellite, which was launched on April 19, 1975.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) mainly operates two kinds of satellites - the Indian National Satellite System or INSAT series for communication, television broadcasting and meteorological services, and the Indian Remote Sensing satellites or IRS system for resources monitoring and management.

The INSAT system, one of the largest domestic communication satellite systems in the Asia-Pacific region, was established in 1983 with the commissioning of INSAT-1B.

The IRS satellite system was commissioned with the launch of IRS-1A in 1988. It has 11 satellites in operation.

Major image booster

The Indian Regional Navigational Satellite System will be a major advancement for the country. It will enhance the country's image in the international arena of space sciences.

I see it as very useful for national security and defence besides its civilian use. The network will cover India and 1,500 kilometres around the country.

I feel it would enable the government to view disturbed areas within the country like the Red belt and also areas around like Pakistan, Nepal, Tibet, Afghanistan and even parts of China.

This system is an exercise in space engineering. In fact, India's space programme is good value for money as it does not cost much.

However, in the future lack of trained manpower may limit the country's space programme. Space and atomic energy sciences are attracting lowcalibre people.

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Countdown to a summer space odyssey as India prepares to launch seven satellites